Random Stat: Turnover Type Leaders

Q: Do you have the statistics for palming/carry violations called on players this season by any chance? -- John P.

A: Indeed we do, although not by chance! Let's take an in-season look at several of the more common turnover types...

Offensive Fouls

Player

Team

Off.Fouls

Curry

NYK

68

Stoudemire

PHO

55

Randolph

POR

47

Arenas

WAS

42

Howard

ORL

41

Anthony

DEN

41

Gordon

CHI

39

Mourning

MIA

38

Chandler

NOK

36

Ellis

GSW

36

Mr. Curry has a sizeable lead this season, not a shock given he was last year's "winner" in this category.

While the top ten is primarily the lovable lugs in the post types who muscle their smaller defenders out of the way with a little too much vigor on occasion, there are a sprinkling of the fearless drivers as well, aka Arenas, Gordon, Ellis.

Bad Passes

Player

Team

BadPasses

Nash

PHO

177

Kidd

NJN

120

Iguodala

PHI

118

Williams

UTA

114

Felton

CHA

113

Tinsley

IND

108

Ford

TOR

103

Alston

HOU

100

Wade

MIA

99

James

CLE

98

Two-time defending MVP Steve Nash is not afraid of trying the risky pass. Certainly a number of them go awry, but you don't hear Phoenix complaining, now do you? He still produces roughly four assists for every bad pass, and unlike some players who get "cheap assists" many of Nash's are the real deal feeds.

These turnovers can be particularly painful since, like bad passes, they are often steals which head back the other way for easy fastbreak points to double the transgression. Dwight Howard has a very bright future, but cutting down on these types of turnovers should be one objective.

And who is that also cracking the top ten? Why it's Mr. Curry again!

Traveling

Player

Team

Travels

O'Neal

IND

38

Howard

ORL

37

Butler

WAS

30

Garnett

MIN

29

Duncan

SAS

28

Smith

ATL

28

Brand

LAC

27

Jefferson

BOS

26

Pachulia

ATL

25

Gordon

CHI

24

Morrison

CHA

24

Watch those extra steps people! The big men are once more the prime culprits, with Jermaine O'Neal and Dwight Howard going down to the wire on this year's leaderboard race.

'Stache Morrison has had a rough rookie season, and showing up in the top ten for this is not particularly good either.

Palming/Carrying

Player

Team

Palming

Crawford

NYK

9

Felton

CHA

9

Roy

POR

8

Wade

MIA

8

Ellis

GSW

7

Iguodala

PHI

7

Bryant

LAL

7

Gordon

CHI

6

Stoudamire

MEM

6

Terry

DAL

6

Back to the original question, and palming/carrying calls are fairly rare in the NBA. Often they occur when a player is about to pick the ball up to make the pass, sees perhaps the pass doesn't look so safe after all and trys to nonchalantly continue dribbling. Then you have the occasional overly officious official who blows the whistle when the dribbler was not in fact gaining any advantage at all.

Double Dribbles

Player

Team

Dbl. Drib

Gordon

CHI

12

Williams

UTA

7

Head

HOU

7

Pargo

NOK

7

Alston

HOU

7

Crawford

NYK

6

Parker

SAS

6

Livingston

LAC

6

Telfair

BOS

6

Paul

NOK

6

For some reason Ben Gordon has almost twice as many double dribble violations as any other player in the league. Making a mockery of the also rans!

What may be more remarkable is that outside of perhaps Tony Parker, the rest of the players are usually young or lightly regarded, for which we can probably think of many possible explanations -- the young guys over-dribble, dribble into a situation and don't quite know how to extricate themselves gracefully, lose focus...or ref bias.

3-Seconds

Player

Team

3 Secs

Curry

NYK

34

Blount

MIN

28

Howard

ORL

25

Dampier

DAL

22

Mourning

MIA

18

Evans

DEN

17

Yao

HOU

17

Ilgauskas

CLE

16

Diop

DAL

15

Duncan

SAS

15

Dalembert

PHI

15

There are still other categories of turnover, but we'll finish with another big man favorite: the three seconds in the paint cop.

For his outstanding ability to turn the ball over so frequently in so many ways, we are pleased to award Eddy Curry once again with the King of Turnovers crown. Now if he could just work on his traveling skills...

Do you have an idea for a cool "random stat" you would like to see? If so, drop us a line